£30m expansion planned at Diageo distillery

Diageo has announced a £30m plan to double production at its most northern Scotch whisky distillery.

Plans have been submitted to Highland Council for the major expansion of Clynelish Distillery in the latest milestone in Diageo’s £1billion programme to increase Scotch whisky production.

The Clynelish expansion will take the on-going capital investment by Diageo in the Highland Council region alone to almost £150million and will include major expansions at Glen Ord and Teaninich Distilleries with further plans to build a new distillery at Alness.

The plans at Clynelish Distillery include the installation of an additional mashtun (the vessel for soaking the malted barley) 10 new washbacks (vessels for the fermentation process) and six new copper stills for distilling the spirit which will effectively double the production capacity to nine million litres of alcohol per annum.

A bio-energy plant is also planned for the site to provide non-fossil fuel energy to power the distillery.

Keith Miller, director of distillation and maturation at Diageo, said: “Clynelish is a very special distillery, producing spirit which is highly prized for its quality and character and is an important part of our Scotch whisky blending inventory, so this is an important part of our investment programme.

“I’m particularly pleased at the investment we are making in the Highland region.

“From Muir of Ord to Brora the investment in our distilleries is now almost £150million, which we believe is bringing great benefit to the local economies and communities.”

Clynelish Distillery produces single malt whisky for use in Scotch whisky brands such as Johnnie Walker.

Diageo first announced its £1bn Scotch whisky investment programme in June 2012.